In fabricating composite material part assemblies, there is sometimes a need to fabricate multiple assemblies that have the same shape but differ in part details or features. These composite material assemblies may be fabricated by laying up multiple plies of fiber reinforced synthetic resin which is then formed or molded into particular shapes using layup tooling. The layup tooling may comprise male and/or female layup tools that are used to compact the plies and form part features corresponding to the geometry of the tools.
Normally, even minor variations in part features require the fabrication of an entirely new set of layup tooling which is expensive, particularly in short run productions and prototyping applications, or where multiple sets of tooling are needed for high quantity production runs.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method of fabricating composite material layups with minimum tooling changes that overcomes the problems discussed above. Embodiments of the disclosure are intended to satisfy this need.